Spoiler alert: I made it!

After the removal of my screws I had no more heal pain. Hallelujah! Recovery was nice and reasonably quick. I just had to wait for my MRI to determine what was causing my ankle to forget how to ankle. I had an appointment set up and was hoping I'd have the results before New York.

The MRI was a piece of cake since it was only my foot and I'm used to being put in head first. I had an appointment for my review with the surgeon and things were chugging along. Then the clinic nurse rang to tell me I was booked in on a day my surgeon was away - they would have to reschedule. "Fine." I said "But I'm away 29th of October until 13th of November." This was noted and I was assured I'd be seen before then.

I kept on running and training for New York and waiting for my appointment letter. It arrived in mid-October and was set for ......November 3! I had to ring up and explain again that I was away then and I'd need rescheduling. An appointment would be sent out to me.

Finally October 29th arrived but no appointment. We flew out of New Zealand on a 19 hour flight to LA and then flew 6 hours to New York. We arrived very tired but managed to get out and check out Times Square.

The next few days were filled with preparations. We fought the crowds at the Expo and looked around New York in a relatively sedate manner.

Finally November 1st came around. We were on the buses to the start at 5:30am. Disabled athletes get checked by security before boarding the buses and then get driven right into the village - a very relaxing way to start. We had a tent to wait in and bagels to chomp on. The time to start came around surprisingly fast.

We started behind the elite women but in a different wave. Our little pack ran off filled with joy and a little trepidation (a lot on my part.). The course is relatively flat apart from the five bridges and a nasty hill up Fifth Avenue to Central Park and continuing up to the finish line. The number of people lining the streets was amazing. There was not one spot not filled. I had taken a tramadol when I woke
up because all the walking around had twinged my left hip and my ankle was twinging as well. This kept me going until halfway through when I had to take another one. My ankle seemed to have decided to ankle and we kept to my plan of running four minutes, walking one and always walking up hills and running down them.

And we finished! It was incredible. The best marathon ever.


We then had a great time visiting New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas, where I shopped up a storm at the outlet malls.

When we arrived back there was a letter with an appointment in two weeks time. I was hoping it was good news.

The MRI revealed possible osteoarthritis where the bones had rubbed. I was prescribed a steroid injection to determine if that was the case. If it worked we would know we had the right place and cause. I also got custom made orthotics made. They are really great - I don't even notice them which is a huge improvement on the previous ones which were off-the-shelf with bits of foam glued on.

The steroid injection was not fun. I had a registrar do it and he had two supervisors so must have been pretty new. It took a long time but he got the needle in perfectly. It's now been three weeks and I'm still pain free so that is fantastic. Previous experience with steroid injections have been very disappointing.